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For the past two years, since Johanna Basford’s Secret Garden came out (it’s now sold two million copies worldwide), they have been flooding the bestseller lists, with Harry Potter, Taylor Swift and even Sherlock Holmes-themed books joining the more classically beautiful.

Their popularity has been linked to the mindfulness trend, as for many fans the concentration required to stay within the lines works as a stress reliever.

But the fashion expert Iain R Webb has another explanation. 'People want something tactile, and physically putting your mark on a page is a creative experience that anyone can do,’ he says.

Iain says he became distracted looking through the beautiful advertisements, interviews and photographs in the Vogue archives whilst researchingCredit:
Vogue

And with his new book, he’s added the most fashionable, covetable one yet to the pile. Even in monochrome, the Vogue Colouring Book is a masterful creation, transporting you back to the billowing layers, long gloves and poised hats of the 1950s.

The book is a collection of 150 ornate illustrations by Webb himself, recalling iconic looks that were immortalised in British Vogue.

A silk-shirt ensemble from March 1959 ready to be coloured inCredit:
Vogue

One of the original Blitz Kids in 1970s London, forerunners of the New Romantics, Webb is a former professor of fashion at the Royal College of Art, Central Saint Martins lecturer, award-winning writer and ex-fashion director of The Times.

He had been looking through the Vogue archives for some time and considering doing a book, but his light-bulb moment came when his mother fell ill. 'She had to go into a care home and wasn’t able to knit any more, but when I found her some colouring books she really took to them,’ he says.

Webb chose images from the 1950s, as this was when Vogue began to be printed in colour, and so the book plays on the idea of the drawings being coloured in. He went through archived issues from January 1950 to December 1959, and drew the 150 chosen illustrations.

From April 1959, a Chanel cardigan suit, as modelled by Comtesse Guy d’ArcanguesCredit:
Vogue

'It’s such a lovely thing to do,’ says Webb. 'I would become distracted looking at the illustrated advertisements, a great interview with Coco Chanel or a now-iconic fashion image in its original form.’

Webb wants his book to be an interactive experience: under the slipcase each copy has a blank cover, and everyone is invited to share their covers and pages with the hashtag #Voguecolouringbook. ￼

'Vogue Colouring Book’, by Iain R Webb (Conran Octopus, £10), is out now